Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
A newspaper in Utah, presented with a California gay couple’s wedding announcement, has stated its policy is to provide such paid coverage only for marriages legal under its own state law.
The decision by Gannett-owned The Spectrum in St. George, Utah, is the opposite of what Indiana-based The Elkheart Truth decided when a same-sex couple from Iowa submitted an engagement announcement last month.
The California couple — Tyler Barrick and Spencer Jones — wanted to the announcement printed in the paper, which provides news for Jones’ hometown, in advance of a family gathering scheduled there next week. Jones told the Associated Press that the paper initially took his credit card information and agreed to print the announcement without a photograph, citing fear that the photo might make readers uncomfortable. When Jones argued that the photo should be included, publisher Donnie Welch wrote in an Aug. 10 e-mail that “as our policy is to run marriage announcements recognized by Utah law, I have made the decision not to run the announcement.”
Gannett, which has not made official comment regarding the situation, also owns The Des Moines Register and Iowa City Press-Citizen. The Spectrum wrote its own story about the controversy here.
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